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Just curious - the last overhaul was a field or factory overhaul or new/reman? 700 SMOH for an engine at the point of failure seems very unlucky.. unless it wasn't overhauled right the first time I hope that doesn't happen to me - just got my engine overhauled from zephyr and waiting to get it into the aircraft

Thinking of installing an aspen soon .. where do you guys get these deals?

Wasnt there a requirement to add beefed up landing gear ? I remember parker mentioning that when he converted to a 262. And the gear mods alone were also a significant chump of change if I remember correctly.

Any idea about the installation times?

Cylinders take a variable amount of time to break in. On this forum, there are reports of a few hours (2 or 3) to 100 hours. Dont know specifically about rocket's cylinder #2 though. 460 seems very high though .. altho depends on how it was being flown then ofcourse.

The mooney service center at norwood also did a good job of doing a pre-purchase inspection on a mooney I was interested in. Problem however is they charge by the hour instead of a fixed flat rate. I am based in KFIT (fitchburg, ma) and live close to boston. So if you need any help during the purchase process let me know (PM me)

I know you have probably finished your trip but for anyone doing this in the future, but just wanted to say that NY approach never has any issues with me overflying their class B as long as I talk to them. I try and fly VFR as much as I can. And for the hudson corridor it seems more scary than it really is. Pilots have to be on top of their game ofcourse but as long as you are not turning or maneuvering there, you are reasonably safe. The SFRA rules and speed limits make things a lot easier and simpler. Its easy to just look out and spot all the traffic instead of looking at a traffic display. I basically fly in the 700 feet and up range and avoid all the helicopters below.

My engine finally got done today and its going to ship back from zephyr prolly in a week or so. Cant wait to get up in the air behind a freshly overhauled engine. One question however - I am thinking of phillips xc 20w-50 mainly because it has no friction modifiers, but it has the AD stuff to keep gunk off engine parts and hold them in suspension. Good idea? Lycoming and my mechanic think it should be straight mineral oil and non-AD oil - dont know what zephyr thinks - I guess I'll find out soon

The salary of executives is not a moral issue or what you feel should be the salary. Its just supply and demand. There are few people with experience running big corporations or organizations successfully and if you dont pay them well, they will go somewhere else. I as a minion in a company want to see my competent CEO, get paid lavishly for doing his job right - which is increasing our stock value and in turn generate wealth for me. I dont want him to get paid less because I will never make 100 mil a year. And if he doesnt do his job right, he will get fired. I dont have data specific to the AOPA situation however. I have just been paying the dues and getting good use of the web courses, insurance, and magazines (turbine section with extra pages - why would I want fewer pages?).

The published TBO is 1600 hours. Factory reman is 48k, zephyr overhaul is 35k.

Btw if you want some interesting news articles about the rocket, look at this overpriced ebay rocket. It has some old and interesting articles in the ad: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mooney-Rocket-Nicest-Available-Price-slashed-Must-sell-/171033588985?pt=Motors_Aircraft&hash=item27d26574f9#ht_2598wt_1021

The prop will not stop until very close to stall speed. So its probably impossible to do when about to touch down, too much concentration required. Or you can be really high over the airport, stop the prop and bring it in for a landing.

Quite a story there! Good luck with your flights!

You donate anything (blood or money) to the red cross, you will feel used too. They will be literally after your blood, but doesnt stop you from donating since its for a noble cause Sorry for dragging in an unrelated metaphor - politicians love to do that and murky the waters. Just for fun

My POH says 0 negative G with flaps extended, otherwise its normal category limits.

Thanks for the advice, I am going with the plywood crate idea. Also I am thinking of making a foam base that will fit the engine base perfectly ... Distribute the load evenly. I know of such liquid foam which then settles later and becomes rigid.

Oh crap $100 a pound ... Okay not too bad

Unfortunately I know of no school renting one. I am based in fitchburg but my plane is undergoing an engine overhaul, otherwise I would have given you a ride. If you are willing to wait 2 months I can still give you a ride. I am not a CFI however, so I cannot check you out.

Just realized most of our engines are a 1000 $ a pound of metal or more! I know its not something you price by weight but still

Congrats! I was considering that bird because of TKS which I want in the north east, but it was a bit rich for me. Those are some amazing speed numbers btw!

Problem is if I get the crate from zephyr, they have to ship it 4 times. Zephyr to me and back and then repeat. I might end up just building a sturdy crate from 3/8ths plywood. I saw that lycon ships engines with a wooden base pallet and a cardboard box, so I thought maybe the heavy duty cardboard box will be okay (have the engine on the pallet already). But I will follow your advice robert7467 especially since this is the second time people in the shipping business have said that

So my mechanic has secured the engine to a pallet but he does not have a cardboard box to cover it or a shipping crate. Wondering if anyone knows of a place to get large corrugated boxes for cheap. All the online places I see need a minimum order of 5 unfortunately. Or maybe someone can loan me one and send me a flattened version of the box - I'll pay for shipping of course. Thanks PS - I believe this is my mechanic's way of getting back at me for shipping the engine to zephyr instead of to his favorite field overhaul shop from whom he gets a cut. I don't understand how my mechanic cannot have the boxes or crates for shipping engines .. sigh

Wow - just looked at the specs - 180-200 knots cruise and pressurized Why wouldn't someone want one - because I have never heard much talk about these airplanes on the forums ..

The news is out at least from the AOPA newsletter - so this issue is thankfully now known !

Alright I'll shut up after this but I got curious about how the terrain database was formed. Looks like the space shuttle did it for us by running a radar altimeter over the entire planet. So at each point the shuttle was overflying, it knew its gps coordinates and then it added the radar height readout. So if the shuttle's GPS altitude was 200,000 feet and radar altimeter was 199,000 then the gps alt height of the obstacle turns out to be 1000 in GPS altitude. So just GPS alone is again not sufficient, you need radar. This is called the SRTM database currently used by Jeppessen and accurate to 15 - 30 meters, not quite WAAS accurate (limitations with radar), but good enough. Before this terrain databases were offby as much as 1800 feet! So the solution was to raise all terrain in the inaccurate region by that much ! Info on srtm http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/papers/pap_1391.pdf In short, if using a terrain database, you will be accurate to within 15 meters or so. If comparing chart MSL values to GPS altitude, you will be off